Debtors Revolt!
The Time to Fight Credit Card Companies, Corporate Profits, and Abusive Banks is Now.
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This was surprising because interest-rate increases are usually a punishment for late payment or going above the credit limit, both crimes I had not committed. I called customer care to have the matter corrected.
After being placed on hold for several excruciating minutes--the music was so bad that I almost gave up the cause and accepted the increased rates as my new reality--a black American man answered my call. I explained my case, and he told me, in the manner of security guard rather than the manner of one who cares for customers, that he could do nothing about it. The increase was made and that was that. But I had been borrowing money from his bank for nearly 10 years without missing one payment; didn't that count for something? It counted for nothing, he said sternly. I was now in the land of Kafka. According to the man guarding the credit card corporation, some person inside of Bank of America had looked at my account and decided that my interest rate needed to be increased by 7 percenage points. Who was this person? The guard didn't know. Who had the power to reverse this person's decision? The guard didn't know. What he could do was mail me a letter stating that someone in the company had made the decision. I have yet to receive that letter.
Stranger Personals
The situation with Bank of America (which recently bought Fleet Bank, a bank to which I owe another, less troublesome debt) seemed hopeless, so I stopped thinking about it. My mind enjoyed relative peace until last Thursday, March 10, when the Senate voted 74-25 in favor of a bill--the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005--that would make it harder for ordinary debtors like me to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, which erases all debts after a filer has forfeited his or her assets. All Senate Republicans voted for the bill, as well as a staggering 18 Democrats. (Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voted against the measure.) The problem with the bill is that it has nothing to do with catching, as its supporters claim, "deadbeats… who abuse the system." The fact of the matter is that most people who declare bankruptcy do so because of medical reasons, and when you add those who declare bankruptcy because they have been laid off or divorced, then you have, according to Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law Professor, 90 percent of ordinary bankruptcy cases.
So, if the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 is not about deadbeats, then what is it about? Like so much in this society, it's about corporate profits.
One Democrat, Senator Mark Dayton, presented an amendment to the bill that would put a cap on interest rates, and another proposed amendment wanted to place restrictions on a creditor's ability to increase a debtor's interest rate. Both amendments where gunned down by Republicans. And there is the proof: This bill had everything to do with interest-rate hikes and penalties, which, according to Bankrate.com, account for between 30 and 40 percent of profits made by credit card corporations. R.K. Hammer Investment Bankers recently reported that in 2003, credit card corporations made $14.8 billion in penalty fees, which was nearly $4 billion more than they made the previous year ($10.7 billion). And as the Washington Post and L.A. Times have pointed out in recent editorials and articles, it is hikes and penalties that keep many of us deep in debt. Making it harder to declare bankruptcy makes it easier for creditors to increase their rates, because bankruptcy is no longer an option for us--we must give in and live with endlessly rising fees and charges. "All that matters in this bill is for the credit card companies to have more profits," said Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 is a declaration of war. Credit card companies were the main supporters of the bill, and have been pressing the issue for almost a decade. Bill Clinton refused to sign it into law because it was too mean; George W. Bush is going to sign it because it is his second term and he no longer needs the votes of those red-state debtors who were dumb enough to vote for him.
So now creditors can treat their debtors like serfs because, from their point of view, we are powerless. But there is another way of seeing the situation. CNN/Money reported in October of 2003 that the total credit card debt in America stood at $735 billion, with each household owing an estimated $12,000. What American debtors owe credit card companies nearly matches the GNP of Mexico. Most commentators and, indeed, most average Americans find these facts depressing. But there is another, much more empowering way of looking at this "mountain of debt," as the pundits like to call it. Our collective debt is actually an area rich with political potential. The willingness of Americans to accrue debt not only fuels the world economy ("the world economy is leveraged to the U.S. consumer," says CNN/Money), but it makes corporations dependent on us in a way they were once dependent on our labor. If only the sums that we owe were politicized then we'd finally have the necessary strength to challenge the neo-liberal policies that have successfully weakened our labor and social rights since the '80s. What's left? What can't corporations relocate to India or Mexico? Our debts.
There's a saying, popular among the rich, that goes like this: "If a person owes $20,000 to a bank, that person has a problem. But if a person owes $20 million to a bank, the bank has a problem." That's why banks and the federal government are always willing to step forward to bail out faltering airlines, and rich people like Donald Trump--who in 1992 was bailed out of a $1 billion debt by panicked banks. If small debtors united we could make our debts the banks' problem. This we can do by rejecting any moralization of our debts, as some Republicans were doing last week ("Those who can pay their bills should pay their bills. That's the American way," said Senator Orrin Hatch), and instead bring our personal negative balances together, connect our little monthly payments into a massive weapon that we can use to threaten powerful institutions like Bank of America.
In Hegel's times, the essential human struggle was between slave and master; in Marx's times, it was between laborer and capitalist; in our times, it is between the debtor and creditor. Debtors of America, unite!
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Major national banks cried that they were losing money and that they were to big to let fail. So the government gave them money, tons of money with the stipulation that the banks were to use the money to lend to consumers and to small businesses. Very little of that is happening. As a result, cars are not being sold, dealers are going out of business, small businesses can’t buy inventory to resell so they are going out of business and unemployment has reached 9.8% nationally, with some states having 12% or higher unemployment.
So what has happened? Banks are keeping the money that they got for bailout to improve their cash reserves and thus make their balance sheet look good. If it looks good at year’s end, someone will get a bonus, after all, their financials has improved. And they continue to improve their financials because they also can play with credit cards by increasing rates to shameful and disgraceful levels at a time when the economy, jobs, and everything connected to our economy is going down the toilet. So what has happened? Greed my friends, greed. It is still here but much, much stronger now that despicable individuals have found new ways to rip us off. The excessive greed has blinded these individuals to the point that they would prefer to drive individuals to bankruptcy and get no money in return for their banks. They rather do this than keep rates at reasonable levels and help customers pay off their debt, and make money for their banks and improve their financials. They are certainly not being upright and respectable corporate partners in today’s economy.
We all have been encouraged by these financial institutions to call them whenever we have a problem and like a good neighbor, they would work with us in resolving problems, so they advertise. Yet when we do call, we get an uncaring, heartless individual on the phone that states that their company is just complying with the terms and conditions of the agreement for the credit cards which makes it perfectly legal. Or they say that due to current economic conditions they are force to increase rates. Yet they got enormous amounts in bailout money. It might be legal, but it certainly is not the Christian or ethical thing to do.
So now we have this “debtors revolt”. There seems to be quite a bit of commentary going on relative to the incredible actions of major banks and credit card companies raising interest rates to immoral levels. But so far that is all we have done, write commentary by the thousands.
What we need to do is unite, all of us under one banner, one goal. There is power in numbers and if we all, as one, united with purpose and persistence, raise hell with senators, house members, senate and house finance committees, bank executives, the Federal Reserve Board, the various regulatory agencies, and the President of the United States, we will succeed in our quest. But we need to get organized, we need to establish an organization, we need to establish goals, and we need to establish an action plan. Just in the past few days, the Fed (Federal Reserve) announced that they are working in drafting regulation that would limit credit card rates, that would impose a one year limit between rate increase. These are just two of the items that they are currently working on. They also have other terms they are working on. But as usual, some members of congress have already found out about this and are indicating that they are oppose to this. We need to identify these individuals and just let them know how we strongly we feel about the greed that drives and controls these financial institutions.
Ann Minch has indicated that just because she won that she will not rest until the rest of us also win. She has also established a web site, which is currently under construction, to fight this problem. Her website is http://debtorsrevoltnow.com/
I am not talking about signing petitions letters, we need to submit individual letters to everyone we can think can help us out. Swamp their offices with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of letters and let these people know that we are pissed, and sick and tired of this immoral greed.
I suggest we try to contact Ann Minch and start this effort rolling now. Banks and credit card companies are fully aware of the upcoming changes that will take place in the next 10 months and they are gearing up to come down on us, again. We need to act now.
We need to take action and we need to do so quickly.
We must act now.
Stop paying your credit cards. Do not engage in negotiations with institutions who have proven themselves not credible. These negotiations are destined for failure and will only put you in a losing position in the end – with monies spent, household budgets stressed to the point of in the very least destroying your quality of life and in the very most putting you on the street or in a relative’s spare room.
We need to stop paying our credit card debt. They have set the rules in their favor in small print that they know we would not be able to comprehend even should we be privy to the methods and formulary it contains. If we were privy to these machinations there is no way we would have entered into an agreement with them in the first place. Their agreements are un-american as well as un-ethical.
They have connived with our government, spending monies to pay off officials we have elected to secure their betrayal of our better interests in favor of greasing the chutes for their financial well being.
It’s funny how the billions of dollars that was “given” to the banks and “taken” from the people were done so within a matter of weeks, the decision to do so being made in a flash. Yet when it comes to spending billions on a “public health care” option or other fundamental policies which would serve the people’s interests, well being and overall quality of life, it is a major controversy riddled with financially supported propagandists who far outnumber the many while underneath these public distractions the rules are forever changing and the new policies which would serve the people are secretly undermined.
Stop paying your credit cards.
What will they do? Send letters? Make threatening phone calls during normal working hours? They area already doing this and more to one out of every 3 individuals you cross paths with during the day. There is nothing for us to lose.
Stop paying your credit cards. These institutions have taken a financial gamble on “unsecured loans” to us. This means that their loans are not attached to anything we “own” such as our home or our cars or our selves.
The most they can do is invest the monies in seeking personal judgements against us. When they do so, we must also remember that the courts in which they will be pleading their cases are run by elected officials: Judges put there by a vote of the people: US. Should we continue to keep judges in place who will adhere to the usurious and unfair business practices to essentially destroy livelihoods, homes and further oppress the general population? The power lies in the Judges we put into office. Remember this when the end game comes an begin to work on this aspect of the credit game – the end game, now. Keep this crucial fact in mind as it is the “last resort” for these decrepit institutions to fall upon. More aobut this and how to combat it in a later section of this manifesto.
Stop paying your credit cards. This is the only way to bring down the many headed beast that is the financial institutions: Chase, Citibank, Discover Card, AMEX.
Without credit we will be a much healthier society. We can still make payment over time agreements with vendors.
The addiction to “swiping” must end. This is how we become blind to the nickels and dimes which will diminish and erode our personal prosperities, and that of future generations, until it is all but gone. In the end the formulary of financial enslavement will win if we do not:
Stop paying our credit cards.
Without these funds, they will have no recourse but to close their doors. But first, they will again seek a bail out from the government which they believe serves their financial interests over our individual liberties.
The time is now. The horizon is upon us. We must act and we must act together.
Stop paying the credit cards.
Let the debtor’s revolt begin.
We will be setting up some sort of web presence within the coming weeks.
Let this quickly drawn up rough draft serve as the initial shot across the bow for the financial institutions to be pro-active, ethical and customer focused. They must cease and desist these unfair business practices, their outsourcing to un-if not anti-american nations to enforce policies made in their offices on high. They must initiate relief, one debtor at a time. They must compromise.
If not, we will bring them to their knees by engaging in one simple act:
STOP PAYING THE CREDIT CARDS
The Hatchet Man
We need to take action and we need to do so quickly.
We must act now.
Stop paying your credit cards. Do not engage in negotiations with institutions who have proven themselves not credible. These negotiations are destined for failure and will only put you in a losing position in the end – with monies spent, household budgets stressed to the point of in the very least destroying your quality of life and in the very most putting you on the street or in a relative’s spare room.
We need to stop paying our credit card debt. They have set the rules in their favor in small print that they know we would not be able to comprehend even should we be privy to the methods and formulary it contains. If we were privy to these machinations there is no way we would have entered into an agreement with them in the first place. Their agreements are un-american as well as un-ethical.
They have connived with our government, spending monies to pay off officials we have elected to secure their betrayal of our better interests in favor of greasing the chutes for their financial well being.
It’s funny how the billions of dollars that was “given” to the banks and “taken” from the people were done so within a matter of weeks, the decision to do so being made in a flash. Yet when it comes to spending billions on a “public health care” option or other fundamental policies which would serve the people’s interests, well being and overall quality of life, it is a major controversy riddled with financially supported propagandists who far outnumber the many while underneath these public distractions the rules are forever changing and the new policies which would serve the people are secretly undermined.
Stop paying your credit cards.
What will they do? Send letters? Make threatening phone calls during normal working hours? They area already doing this and more to one out of every 3 individuals you cross paths with during the day. There is nothing for us to lose.
Stop paying your credit cards. These institutions have taken a financial gamble on “unsecured loans” to us. This means that their loans are not attached to anything we “own” such as our home or our cars or our selves.
The most they can do is invest the monies in seeking personal judgements against us. When they do so, we must also remember that the courts in which they will be pleading their cases are run by elected officials: Judges put there by a vote of the people: US. Should we continue to keep judges in place who will adhere to the usurious and unfair business practices to essentially destroy livelihoods, homes and further oppress the general population? The power lies in the Judges we put into office. Remember this when the end game comes an begin to work on this aspect of the credit game – the end game, now. Keep this crucial fact in mind as it is the “last resort” for these decrepit institutions to fall upon. More aobut this and how to combat it in a later section of this manifesto.
Stop paying your credit cards. This is the only way to bring down the many headed beast that is the financial institutions: Chase, Citibank, Discover Card, AMEX.
Without credit we will be a much healthier society. We can still make payment over time agreements with vendors.
The addiction to “swiping” must end. This is how we become blind to the nickels and dimes which will diminish and erode our personal prosperities, and that of future generations, until it is all but gone. In the end the formulary of financial enslavement will win if we do not:
Stop paying our credit cards.
Without these funds, they will have no recourse but to close their doors. But first, they will again seek a bail out from the government which they believe serves their financial interests over our individual liberties.
The time is now. The horizon is upon us. We must act and we must act together.
Stop paying the credit cards.
Let the debtor’s revolt begin.
We will be setting up some sort of web presence within the coming weeks.
Let this quickly drawn up rough draft serve as the initial shot across the bow for the financial institutions to be pro-active, ethical and customer focused. They must cease and desist these unfair business practices, their outsourcing to un-if not anti-american nations to enforce policies made in their offices on high. They must initiate relief, one debtor at a time. They must compromise.
If not, we will bring them to their knees by engaging in one simple act:
STOP PAYING THE CREDIT CARDS
The Hatchet Man
He then asked me for my information to pull up my info. He asked me for my updated income, where I was working, and ownership status of my current residence. Then he proceeds to tell me, "I see you have a combined balance of $19,000. How do you plan to pay that down?" At that point, I was stunned and I can feel my blood boiling over. I had made this call to them at my place of work 8:00 AM in the morning thinking that it's just a normal information update call. I did all I could not to raise my voice and asked him, "What is this call really about? I called in to update my info as your letter requested. Why are you harassing me about my plan of repayment? I am never late and I make more than my minimum." His response was,"Yes, I see on your lower balance card that you have been making higher payments but for your higher balance card, you've made close to the minimum. Your credit balance is really high. You really need to get this taken care of." At that point, I felt flushed with embarrasment because he was talking to me like I am a deadbeat debtor when all this time, I've been paying my credit card as agreed.
I proceeded to tell him that I had did a balance transfer from my other Credit card using one of their promtional checks a couple of months ago which took me closer to their credit limit. I asked him,"If you guys didn't want me to borrow from you, then why do you continue to send me those balance transfer checks and market your low rates? I take that offer and you turn around and try to collect when I have never defaulted?" He told me,"Marketing is marketing. Your balance is too high and it must be paid down."
At this point, I can see I am getting no where with him and told him that once I've gotten this card paid off, I'm taking my business elsewhere. I've had my credit card with them for 10 years now and have NEVER defaulted.
I praise "hatchettman17" for his courage to not pay his credit cards to support this revolt. As a proud American, I don't want my credit to suffer for this. I also don't think I have the strenght to face the unknown legal ramifications if I join in this revolt. I think many Americans in my shoes feel the same way. We love the idea of the revolt but do not know if we can do it.
The government is not going to help the individual households. All the while when Obama approves to reduce Fed income taxes for average households, the state and local government are raising property taxes and misc taxes. This money is going from one pocket to another.
Right now, I only feel that my hands are tied. The only thing I can do is get these cards paid down as fast as I can, even if we have to starve and tighten our belts to do this.
What I do get is tons of free shit thanks to the morons who spend more than they earn. You know you subsidize all those points I cash in for flights etc.?
And to all you morons out there pissing and moaning about the bank bailout….who's money do you think was in those banks? Would you have preferred a total meltdown of the banking system? Do you think FDIC would have covered your unreported barista tips at WAMU? Do you think when you put money in a bank, they take it in the back, and put a postit on it with your name saying 'Keep here until Dave the Barista wants it back'?
"Stop paying your credit cards"
Be my guest, I like to see people fuck themselves over. Or here's a better idea: live within your means.
Maybe a stretch in debtors jail would teach you a lesson on living beyond your means.
Sure...
"Without credit we will be a much healthier society"
Just look at Bangladesh.
"over our individual liberties. "
You mean your right to buy shit on credit and not pay for it? I didn't know theft was a right in America.
I'm glad Davy Jones that you are so clever and solvent that you can avoid these situations. Give yourself another pat on your sick puppy back, as you so enjoy seeing people getting screwed. You are an entirely offensive piece of work.
12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpFqQgyH…
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh0_VUDvH…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Barz%C3%…
Charles Mudede (the author of the article) may have been the first to call it back in 2005, but more recently Marshall Auerback of the Roosevelt Institute predicted a Debtors' Revolt:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-a…
And in September, Ann Minche's YouTube Debtors Revolt Video went viral:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4O…
Both Moody's and Fitch predict credit card chargeoff rates to run above 11% throught the middle of next year, which will put huge pressures on the credit card banks ... who will naturally ratejack everyone to try to keep from going under. Advanta Bank already tried that though, and the result was EPIC FAIL.
So the banks need to get the message: It's ON!
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